By Fatima Saka
The Senate has yet to debate a report containing recommendations to address the failure of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to implement its resolutions, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Legislative Compliance, Senator Garba Musa Maidoki, has disclosed.
Maidoki made this known on Tuesday while responding to journalists following complaints by senators during plenary that government agencies routinely failed to act on resolutions arising from motions and debates.
He said the committee had submitted a report detailing its activities over the past three years, highlighting gaps in compliance and proposing measures to address them, but the Senate had yet to consider its recommendations.
According to him, the failure to examine the report has left unresolved some of the challenges affecting the implementation of legislative resolutions.
Maidoki explained that the committee organised a seminar for representatives of MDAs and the National Assembly shortly after its inauguration to clarify institutional responsibilities and improve compliance with Senate resolutions.
He noted that although Senate resolutions were not laws and did not have the same binding force as legislation, they communicated the concerns and aspirations of Nigerians to policymakers and government institutions.
“When we make resolutions, because we are representing people across the country, we are telling policymakers, governments and parastatals that this is the thinking of Nigerians, and we want you to readjust your programmes to address these issues,” he said.
The senator also identified inadequate budgetary provisions as a major obstacle to implementation, explaining that government agencies could struggle to execute resolutions requiring expenditure if the activities were not captured in the approved budget.
He said the committee had recommended that unresolved resolutions should be prioritised in the following year’s appropriation to ensure that funds were available for their implementation.
Maidoki stressed that the recommendation was intended to address situations in which resolutions were adopted after budgetary allocations had been finalised, leaving MDAs without specific provisions to finance the required activities.
He further described the Senate President as the chief compliance officer of the Senate, saying the committee’s report was designed to provide the leadership with practical measures to improve implementation.
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The disclosure followed complaints by senators during Tuesday’s plenary about the failure of government agencies to comply with resolutions passed by the upper chamber.
Maidoki’s remarks have placed the spotlight on the Senate’s internal follow-up mechanisms, the need to consider the committee’s recommendations and the importance of making adequate budgetary provisions for resolutions requiring government expenditure.
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